Ty Greene, USC Upstate’s sharpshooting all-conference guard, fired a wide-open 3-pointer from the corner Wednesday at the end of practice.

And the ball hit the side of the backboard. He shook his head in frustrated disgust.

Greene, who missed a month with a broken hand, returned to action Saturday and scored five points in 21 minutes off the bench. But it’s going to take him a little while to be his normal self. His struggles have shown that the Spartans couldn’t just plug him back in at the start of the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament.

“I’m glad he got to play the other day and I’m glad he’s back,” USC Upstate head coach Eddie Payne said. “But his timing and his shot have been off. He’s even making mental mistakes. You have to expect that for a guy who missed four weeks. Hopefully, he’ll have another home game (in the tournament following Friday night’s regular-season finale) and if we can get through that, we’ll have to beat two really good teams on the road.”

Those two teams are Mercer and Florida Gulf Coast in the semifinals and championship, the order to be determined. If USC Upstate can beat East Tennessee State on Friday, FGCU can win home-court advantage on Saturday. If ETSU wins, the same is true for Mercer.

USC Upstate actually did well without Greene. The Spartans went 6-2, beat Mercer by 19 and lost to Florida Gulf Coast by only four. Greene’s replacement in the starting lineup, Fred Miller, has averaged 9.6 points and 4.9 assists in the nine games since the injury. He had 15 points and eight assists in a win against ETSU.

And he’s not so eager to take a back seat again.

“You can’t expect that, because Ty is back, everything is the same as it was before,” Payne said. “Those guys who stepped up and got it done are going to have to give a little bit and Ty is going to have to give a little bit. The minutes are not going to be the same. I think everybody understands it intellectually. But there’s an emotional side to it, too. We’re going to do what is in the best for the team. If we can accept that, we can be stronger.”

About This Blog

Todd Shanesy is an award-winning sports writer who has been twice honored nationally by the Associated Press and more than three dozen times by the South Carolina Press Association. He is a native of Troy, Ohio, and studied journalism at Marshall University (1987 graduate). Shanesy is a former sports editor of the Florence (S.C.) Morning News and has been with the Spartanburg Herald-Journal since 1991.

Follow him two ways on Twitter: @ToddShanesySHJ and @TerrierTracker (for everything Wofford-related).